Jessica Monroe

I have spent the last three months hauling ten mini guitar amps across hotel rooms, campsites, and a friend’s living room, and I finally have a clear answer to the question every traveling guitarist asks: which mini guitar amp actually survives the road? My team and I compared these amps side by side for battery … Read more

Finding the best guitar amps for small gigs and rehearsals is one of the trickiest decisions a working guitarist makes. You need enough volume to compete with a drummer, enough tone to inspire your playing, but also enough portability that you don’t dread loading in for a 30-minute set at the local bar. After our … Read more

Finding the best acoustic guitar amps for the money means balancing wattage, tone quality, and features without overspending. I have spent months testing acoustic amplifiers across bedroom practice sessions, coffee shop gigs, and small venue performances to figure out which ones actually deliver value. After comparing 8 popular models side by side, I can tell … Read more

I spent three months testing portable recorders in everything from quiet forest clearings to noisy convention floors, and one thing became clear fast: you do not need to spend $400 to get professional-grade field audio. The best budget field recorders under $150 have gotten remarkably good, with features like 32-bit float recording that were exclusive … Read more

I have spent the past three months testing ten of the best modern portable cassette players currently shipping, running dozens of mixtapes through each one to see which ones earn a permanent spot in my bag. The cassette revival is not slowing down, and the choices in are better than they have been since the … Read more

There’s something undeniably special about slipping a tape into a deck and hearing that soft mechanical click before the music starts. I grew up dubbing mixtapes in the late nineties, so when my own cassette collection started calling again last year, I went hunting for the best cassette players with Bluetooth I could actually rely … Read more

I still remember the first time I dubbed a friend’s mixtape onto a blank Maxell. That dual-well deck in his basement saved me hours of rewinding, and it kicked off a lifelong appreciation for what these machines can do. After spending weeks testing and comparing today’s options, I can tell you that finding the best … Read more

Finding the right guitar amp used to mean choosing between great tone and having enough effects to keep things interesting. The best guitar amps with built-in effects in completely changed that equation, packing amp modeling, delay, reverb, modulation, and even loopers into single units that sit comfortably in a bedroom or on a stage. I … Read more

Picking the best Boss Katana amps for used to feel overwhelming when the lineup was just two or three models. Now with eight distinct Gen 3 options ranging from a 35-watt wireless desktop unit to flagship 100-watt combos and heads, the real challenge is matching the right amp to your playing style. I spent the … Read more

When I first plugged into a Positive Grid Spark amp three years ago, I expected another gimmicky modeling amp. What I got instead was the first practice amp that genuinely changed how I learn songs at home. After spending the last 90 days testing every current model side-by-side — from the 50-watt Spark 2 down … Read more